To Scale

Sara Schneckloth

April 23 – May 31, 2015

Foley Gallery is delighted to present To Scale, a solo show of drawings by artist Sara Schneckloth.

Schneckloth’s work is an ongoing investigation of the relationship between the bodily activity of drawing and our interpretation of natural systems and phenomena. Her practice bridges the concerns of traditional mark making, new media, and the visual cultures of science, and seeks to discover ways in which drawing operates as a site of trans-disciplinary inquiry. Her current work combines visual elements from the natural and built environments, and is driven by attention to biology, geology, and architecture.

Schneckloth’s drawings originate from the places she resides during their making. Texture, form, color, and concept emerge from the field in which she is immersed. She uses materials - ink, charcoal, graphite, watercolor, wax - that can be layered and manipulated, with each mark echoing surfaces and forms that she has seen or touched. Her focus is on capturing structures that mark boundaries and create functional separations of space, while calling into play notions of protective skin, inner cavities, and anatomies of function. She captures the history and physicality of the built forms she encounters, while evoking living, natural systems.

To Scale began in 2011 during an artist residency in southwest France. Schneckloth worked with a patrimoine (heritage) group to rebuild a length of dry stone wall using traditional methods. In the process of building the wall, she found that the concerns of construction translated directly into the studio activity of drawing. In 2013, she drew on the banks of the East River for a summer; the drawings reflect the collision between rapid contemporary construction, century-old existing warehouses, and underlying natural geology. She also spent a lot of time drawing in New Mexico, making drawings that are a conscious echo of the structures of the human body, as enacted through both gesture and form.

Schneckloth has lived, worked, and exhibited throughout the US and internationally. She is an Associate Professor of Drawing at the University of South Carolina.

To Scale will remain on view through May 31st. Foley Gallery is open Wednesday – Sunday, 12 – 6pm. To request images, please contact the gallery at 212.244.9081 or info@foleygallery.com.